The 7 Most Popular NFL Teams This Year

Wikimedia CommonsSeatGeek ranked all 32 NFL teams this week, based on their average ticket prices for the 2011 regular season. We took a closer look at the top 7 teams and determined which of their games are most popular, and which are in the least demand.

While there exist a wide range of prices across the league, we did notice a few general trends amongst the top teams:

Demand for a home opener tends to be significantly less than the demand for a game against a major rival over the following weeks.

NFL tickets for games later in the season tend to be cheaper than games in Weeks 1-8.

NFL ticket prices drop significantly for games around major holidays like New Years Day and Christmas.

1/

#7 Chicago Bears

Fans of Da Bears are clearly chomping at the bit for a rematch of last years' NFC Championship game. This is not the home opener, which takes place the previous week against the Atlanta Falcons ($213, right in the middle of the pack for Bears tickets).

2/

#6 Dallas Cowboys

Did anyone actually think that Dallas' biggest game wouldn't be their home opener? Come on. Anyway, the Week 13 game against the Panthers is insanely cheap as far as Cowboys tickets go, so fans should grab these tickets while they're still low - even if the game is a probable blowout, fans can get into Cowboys Stadium and (almost certainly) see their team win for less than $100!

3/

#5 Philadelphia Eagles

It's slightly surprising to see the Cardinals on the bottom of Philly's proverbial stack, but completely unsurprising that fans are going nuts for Patriots Eagles tickets. The teams didn't play each other last year, so fans have got to be foaming at the mouth to see this matchup.

4/

#4 New York Giants

Like so many others this year, New York Giants fans are shelling out a lot of money to see their team take on the Packers in Week 13. The Big Blue Wrecking Crew is unique in that their later games are generally more in-demand than their earlier ones -- No other team has their cheapest tickets fall on a game in October, when Giants tickets hit their season low of $191 (still pretty darn high).

5/

#3 Pittsburgh Steelers

Fans of the 2010 AFC Champions are clearly amped to snap up Steelers tickets to see their team take on the AFC East-dominating Pats in Week 8. Still, this is only the 13th most expensive game of this NFL season. So how could Steelers ticket prices be #3 overall? Because every single game is in very, very high demand. Their lowest-priced ticket (vs Cincinnati) is the most expensive of the 'least demanded ticket for a single team' category at $211! Only the defending champion Green Bay Packers can join the Steelers in being able to say that every single game is reselling for an average of $200 or more on the secondary ticket market.

6/

#2 New England Patriots

New Year's Day NFL tickets are generally amongst the least-demanded, chiefly because fans would rather watch these games at home. Still, the $184 figure is still pretty impressive, and speaks to the strength of Patriots tickets on the secondary market. The Week 6 Cowboys-Pats game is the #2 most demanded pro football game of the entire season.

7/

#1 Green Bay Packers

Much to the surprise of absolutely no one, Packers ticket prices are insane this season. The home opener against the New Orleans Saints on September 8th has the most expensive NFL tickets of the entire 2011 season. But Packers tickets are strong across the board -- their cheapest average ticket (for the New Years day game against Detroit) is still over $200, whereas many teams don't see average prices anywhere near the 200-mark, even for their strongest game. [Example: Minnesota Vikings tickets for the Week 7 game vs. Green Bay are the Vikings' most popular tickets, yet only average out to $126.]